Secrets of a
Highly Motivated and Productive Sales Team

By Drew Stevens

One of the largest challenges of any sales manager is a
motivated team. Managers typically inherit employees causing
challenges between the different work philosophies. Managers seek
alternatives to the morale and productivity challenges only to find
little assistance. Research suggests differently especially in
present economic tumult. After five years of exhaustive research, we
at Stevens Consulting Group provide some methods to these
challenges.

It all begins with
hiring:
Many organizations apply foolish thought to hiring. In fact,
research with over 500 sales managers illustrates that over 91% wait
until budgets widen before hiring. Hiring is not meant to be a
reactive practice but rather proactive. Managers must be concerned
with fees and time in lost productivity when someone is terminated.
Typical estimates illustrate that once termination occurs 16 weeks
or more linger before another employee is hired and it costs the
organization four times the previous employee’s salary. Is the
downtime and revenue loss worth it?

Best practices of those gaining positive results hire on a
proactive basis. Proactively entails constantly being alert. Seek
out vendors, competitors, suppliers and even customers. Managers
and employees must always seek out those that complete the
organizational enigma.

Look for Talent not
bodies:
Hire for skill – Talent is innate. Organizations hire for
personality and behavior first. Skill is not interchangeable,
behavior is. I recall a five star hotel that sought my advice on
creating the ultimate VIP experience; two levels of staff that were
employed to simply “raise the bar”. After several hours of
observation and shopping the customer it was easy to depict that
“VIP” staff repaired flaws left by VIP housekeepers. If the hotel
hired the right skill then there would be little need to have
redundant services.

Organizations hire many selling professionals because they
are gregarious or polite. The only consideration is whether they can
hunt, farm and close business. Too much emphasis is placed in
behavior, this can be altered, and talent is something staff is born
with.

Get on board with
OnBoarding: Onboarding is the
process that includes all paperwork, accommodations, assimilation
and acceleration of an individual employee to the work force of an
organization. Onboarding enables an employee speed and velocity at
the initial outset of the job assignment. The process requires a
coordinated organizational effort to guide and mentor new and
existing employees to huge gains in productivity. Research
illustrates that 69% of organizations with a structured program have
a higher success factor of maintaining employees beyond three years.
Onboarding plans must include:

A clear sense
of purpose describing why orienting the new employee is
important for the company and the worker.

An assessment
of the environment (including any negative aspects of the job)

Identification
of the ‘critical few objectives’ that the new employee must
master quickly if he or she is to succeed.

Identification
and assignment of a mentor

The process of onboarding creates a more cohesive and blended
staff. Based on seven years of field research with over 3500
employees, it is found that those that understand their company,
their products/services and the competition, were more productive
and happier in the workplace. The results of this issue not only
create a more productive work team but also one that is retained
beyond three years. Managers that retain their employees longer are
more apt to be more productive, have less internal strain and create
better team synergy.

Skill Based
Workshops for Staff Retention: Of the 120 billion
dollars per year invested in human capital development only a small
percentage focuses on sales training. It is incomprehensible that
every organizations number one asset is selling- yet so little time
is allocated. There are three prevalent sales training issues;

1) Sales Managers
typically state a lack of time for training, yet nothing is more
imperative than an investment in human capital. A great example was
when a sales manager from a Fortune 1000 firm called me to conduct
training for his team of 45 but was only willing to invest three
hours.

2) Sales Managers
typically hold short-term event based training. Development is a
process not an event! Beliefs, habits and values will not alter in
seven-hour program. Another manager told me that product training is
more prevalent than professional training.

3) No
accountability. A travesty of development is the lack of
accountability following a development program.

Selling similar to medical and legal is a profession. It
needs to be taken seriously and invested as such. Employees leave
organization for not only poor managers but also the belief they are
not assets. When managers enable investments back to selling
professionals hiring and staff retention are eased.

The Golden Rule –
Communicate: Sales Managers and
their people must communicate. A recent sample illustrates a decline
in sales meetings and one on one communication. Individuals thrive
on feedback to understand their relationship with organizational
goals. The inability to confront subordinates has seriously
undermined productivity in the workplace. Some of the excuses equate
to time however, the truthful culprit is distaste for conflict.

Social scientists and sales management experts (such as
myself) have studied management theory and performance and the
belief is that consistent feedback is necessary for determining an
employee’s contribution relative to the required outputs and
measurements of the job function. In order to measure effectiveness
researchers believe monthly appraisals are a good metric for
productivity. These help to:

To encourage
high levels of employee motivation and performance

To provide
accurate information to be used in managerial decision making

In addition, they are relatively easy to do and require
little effort. Feedback and appraisals do not require tiresome
paperwork. An informal yet crucial conversation helps to strengthen
wonderful points while limiting the flaws. Staff always will do
better when they are offered kudos.

Finally…it’s all
about you! Employee turnover
costs organizations billions of dollars in lost revenues and
operational dollars. Research from just a few years ago reveals the
tremendous impact sales managers have on their employee’s level of
commitment. It is imperative to note that individuals do not leave
companies - they leave poor managers.

Poor management-employee relationships contribute to negative
morale. As recent as 2006 the Gallup Organization estimated there
were 32 million actively disengaged employees costing the American
economy up to $350 billion per year in lost productivity. Stop the
bleeding by remaining close and engage your employees with
conversation, feedback and relationship. Collaboration begins when
manager acknowledge and have knowledge of their staff.

Much is dependent on the desire to change; methods chosen and
consistent follow through. However, if you do nothing, you get
nothing- staff and morale might decease. Take the time, seek
remedies, and keep morale high. Doing so, lowers attrition, improves
productivity, increases profitability and most importantly- reduces
stress.